


Child of Wells

by orphan_account



Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: (Don't Tell Him I Said That), Alternate Universe - Pre-Canon, Barry Is a Good Boy, Barry is Taken in by Thawne instead of Joe, Feels, Foreshadowing, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Getting to Know Each Other, Growing Up, Hartley Rathaway Being a Jerk, He Cares About His Friends Though, He wants to be friends with everybody, Joe only appears in the prologue, Light Angst, Other Arrowverse characters may appear, S.T.A.R. Labs, Tags May Change, The Rathaways' A+ Parenting, Wellsobard is a surprisingly good dad
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-02
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-12 19:33:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13554099
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Barry Allen never expected his life to turn out this way - his best friend living in another city, his mother murdered, his father in jail for it. But, the one thing he truly didn't see coming was that the person who would take him in would be none other than his hero: Harrison Wells.(AKA the "Eobard Raises Barry" AU nobody wanted)





	1. The Transfer

The day of the transfer was a big one. Iris already knew it was coming, Joe made sure of that, but the farewell between her and Barry was a sad one nonetheless. They stood there together on the porch of the former West house, their bodies intertwined in a hug and their faces streaked with tears. Joe himself stood back with Henry, the fathers letting their children have their moment.

Finally, Barry pulled away. “P-promise you won’t forget me, Iris.”

Iris nodded. “I won’t, Barry.

“And be sure to write. I-I want to hear all about life in Keystone.”

“I-I will. Everyday.”

Barry looked down. “I’ll miss you, Iris.”

“I’ll miss you too, Barry.” Trembling, she turned to her father. “I’m ready.”  

“Of course, baby.” Joe said. “Let’s get to the car.” He shook hands with Henry. “I’ll be seeing you.”

Henry smiled. “You too, Joe.” He then turned to Barry. “Come on, Bear. We can’t keep your mother waiting much longer.”

“Okay,” Barry said looking down. He then rubbed his arm on his face, wiping away the tears. He looked at Iris. “Bye.”

“Bye, Barry.”

Then, Iris and Joe West got in the car, which would take them to their new life Keystone City.  Barry stood there, still as a statue, with his father for a little longer. Joe sighed. While he didn’t express it verbally, he was worried about Barry. He and Iris had been friends for as long as Joe could remember, and while Barry didn’t know he knew, Joe knew the kid was head-over-heels in love with his baby girl. And, with Barry’s tendency to get in trouble, Joe was concerned what he might get into without Iris to keep him grounded.

“Dad?” Iris asked, shaking his arm. “Dad, are you alright? You zoned out there a bit.”

Joe started a bit, involuntarily. “Oh, it’s nothing, Iris. I was just thinking.” He shook his head to clear his thoughts. Turning to his daughter, Joe offered up a grin. “Ready to get this show on the road?”

Iris nodded. “Yeah.”

Joe smiled. “Let’s do this, then.” He started the drive to their new life, to Keystone City.

Barry would be fine. Henry and Nora Allen were two of the best parents Joe knew and, with them to guide him, Barry would be alright. He had to be.

* * *

He never knew how soon he’d be proven wrong.


	2. Questioning

Barry sat in the witness interrogation room at CCPD, completely still. The memories of the night were stuck in his head, repeating over and over again. Waking up to the sound of crashes and clangs. The sight of the water in his aquarium floating upwards, as if by magic. And going down the stairs and seeing  _ him _ . The Man in Yellow.

Somehow, he trapped Barry’s mother between red and yellow lightning and then, the Man in Yellow had taken a knife to her heart and killed her. And, to make things even worse, the police had arrested Barry’s dad for it.

Suddenly, the door opened, jolting Barry out of his thoughts. “Hey there, kiddo.” said the detective who came through.

“Hi.” Barry greeted.

The detective sat in the chair across from Barry and got out a notepad. “Alright, Barry. My name’s Detective Singh and I’ll be asking you a few questions today. Got it, buddy?”

Barry nodded a bit. “Yeah.”

“Alright. Now, can you tell me what happened?”

“W-well, I was sleeping, but all of a sudden I heard these noises.”

“Noises?”

“Yeah. Crashes and clangs.”

“I see.” he jotted something down on his pad. “And what did you do after these sounds woke you up?”

“I wanted to see what was happening, so I went downstairs.”

“And did you see what was making these noises?”

“Yeah. There was my mom and-and-”

“It’s okay to say what happened, Barry. Nothing’s bad going to happen to you.”

“There was this lightning!” 

Detective Singh’s eyebrow shot up into his hairline. “Lightning.”

“Yeah, lightning! It was red and yellow and my mom was trapped inside it!”

“Oh. Sh-she was?”

Barry nodded eagerly. “And then, my dad came because he wanted to see what was happening too and the lightning was circling faster and faster!”

Singh nodded, an awkward expression on his face. “Go on.”

“Then, my dad grabbed me and told me to run. But, right after that, I saw this shape. It was this.. This man in yellow with glowing red eyes. I only saw him for an instant before I was a block away!”

Singh cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. A block?”

“Yeah! I was there in my house, in my  _ living room _ , and then all of a sudden, I was outside! By the time I got back to the house, the police were there!”

“Oh. I-I see…”

“Yeah! Please detective, my dad didn’t kill my mom. It was the Man in the Yellow! You-you’ll tell your boss, won’t you?” Barry asked, his eyes pleading.

Singh got up. “I’ll, uh, see what I can do, kid.”

* * *

“You’re kidding me.” Singh’s boss, Captain Burns, stated with a deadpan expression.

Singh shook his head. “I’m afraid not, sir. Barry is completely convinced that this ‘Man in Yellow’ is the one who killed his mom instead of his dad. The poor kid’s in denial.”

Burns huffed and paced over to his window. “Well, no matter. Even without the kid’s testimony, the case is still pretty solid. We’ll just excuse Barry’s absence as him not being able to bring himself to testify or something like that.”

“I see, sir. But, what will happen to the kid?”

Burns looked at some files. “Well, aside from his dad, Barry has no living relatives, so he’ll go into the system. Now, get this down to processing, alright?” He handed them to Singh.

“Okay.” Singh exited the room, forcing down an uncomfortable lump in his throat. It was just like the captain said, the case was open and shut. Barry Allen’s statement was just the scared ramblings of a little boy.

After all, what Barry said was impossible. There was no way something like _that_ could be real.

.....

Could it?

 


	3. Harrison Wells

Barry was tired. Heck, he was more than tired; he was  _ exhausted _ . But, that didn’t give him an excuse. A month had passed since his father’s trial, which sentenced him to life in prison without parole. As such, Barry was currently scouring the Internet for any “impossible” things; specifically ones that, should they wind up being real, might cause the jury in a possible re-trial consider pardoning his dad. 

After all, if any of the “impossibilities” Barry was researching were real, was a man capable of moving faster than sight and sound any more absurd? Barry had managed to find a couple items of interest so far. Whispers about a green man in Peru. Legends about some kind of murder cult hidden in Asia. 

Unfortunately, the “impossibilities” seemed to be few and far between; a good percentage of the things Barry found consisted of  _ Alice in Wonderland  _ fanfiction, Chris Tomlin songs, and dictionary definitions.

An eyelid slipped down and then the next. Barry shook his head, trying to get the sleepiness out of his system.

“Hello there.”

“Huh?! Wh-who’s there?!” Barry spun around, falling off his swivel chair in the process.

The person he found, however, wasn’t exactly who he expected. Harrison Wells was standing in the doorway and had a fatherly smile on his face.

Slowly, his legs shaking slightly, Barry got up. “ _ Harrison Wells?! _ ”

Harrison nodded. “That’s me. And  _ you _ , on the other hand, are Barry Allen.”

Barry nodded dumbly.

Harrison walked over to the computer. “‘Impossibilities’, huh? An interesting topic, Barry.”

Barry’s face heated up roughly an extra hundred degrees. “Th-thank you, sir. I’ve been working for the past… um.” His mind blanked, his memory failing to remember how long it’s been since he started.

Harrison spared a quick glance at the clock. “Eight hours.”

Barry’s jaw dropped. “ _ Eight hours?! _ ”

Harrison nodded. “Eight hours. You might want to think about getting some sleep.”

Barry nodded so fast that his head seemed like it would fly right off his shoulders. “I will, sir. But, uh, what are you doing here?”

Harrison opened his mouth, but Barry cut him off before he could say anything. “N-not that I’m trying to be rude or anything! It’s just that, well, you’re  _ Harrison Wells _ ! The New Einstein! You’re a legend in the scientific world and  _ me _ ? I’m just some kid from Central City! What would you even want with me?!”

Harrison gave a bemused chuckle, as if he was somehow unable to see him as anything less than exceptional. “Well, that’s a bit of a long story. As I’m sure you heard, my wife died recently.”

“Yeah, I-I did. It was in a car accident. I’m sorry for your loss.”

Harrison smiled. “Thank you for your condolences, but that’s the reason why I’m here. You see, Tess always wanted to start a family. However, the car accident put a stop to that. As a result, I’ve decided to adopt.”

Barry rapidly blinked. “And-and you want  _ me _ ?!”

Harrison nodded. “You’re a very special boy, Barry.” He extended a hand out to him. “What do you say?”

Barry was about to nod, but swayed suddenly. His legs went wobbly. His mouth moved erratically, attempting to form multiple shapes in an effort to express his agreement. And then, darkness.

* * *

Harrison took that as a "yes".

 


End file.
